Trades

Monday, 29 September 2014

0001 - Introduction to the blog.

About me and what's in this blog:

Hi, my name's Andrea. I'm 36 years old.
This blog will not entertain you with long posts.
It's about me, a trader. Fighting in the arena since the end of 2008. Not yet very profitable. Not a loser either.
It's about a disciplined approach to technical analysis.
It's about focus, discipline, method, order, repetition, because I believe that history repeat itself.
As a good traders said: "trade well, profits will follow."IT'S ABOUT TRADING WELL.
All I'll write is just the essential, not a word more, I won't waste my time or yours.
Beware, I'm on my journey, I'm not steady, not consistent. I'm not an active trader jumping in and out of stocks. Not yet.
I built my trading plan by my own.
I've taken inspiration from a few good books among the bunch I've read.
I'd like to mention Dave Landry 2 old books and Stan Weinstein 80's book above all. And Larry Williams whose 60's and 70's books inspired my first interest in this world.
Pristine free stuff is very good stuff, if you're already an experienced trader.
I'm boring. I like defined things or at least a clear idea of a plan.
I'm not arrogant as I seem, as a matter of fact I'm very friendly.
Well, see you! Hope you'll enjoy what you'll read on this blog!

R and F can pop in different technical landscapes. It could be in a strong uptrend, in a volume play, in a strong downtrend, is a climax down day or climax up day or just in the middle of nowhere if I like the price behavior.

My tactics are 2:

- OV (oversold, overbought. It means to get into the trade while it's still declining)
- C20 (cycles based on averages. In deeper details I'll refer to C20(a), C20(b) and C20(c))
They are defined with the time frame as well. Ex. OV(H) = oversold hourly chart

My price action patterns (PP) are numerous, I'm not going to reveal them, but you can spot them easily by yourself and discuss them in private with me if you wish.

My exit tactics are the reverse of my entry tactics and exit PPs are the reverse of bullish PPs.

My stop loss is usually a technical one, it's based on the technical pattern or cycle phase. It's never a fixed number, because I lost a decent amount of money stopping out at exact numbers (for example 100$ not a penny more not one less) in sensitive zones.
Important: each trade is based on a defined setup and has a chosen tactic, each tactic has its "natural stop".
So, if I don't stop a bad trade, it means I am breaking my rules and I deserve to lose.

My trades are based on a sort of "multiple screen" analysis.
On of the most important thing to follow my trades is reading the time frame of the setup and of the tactic used.
The tactic time frame is the "main screen" or "main time frame".
I use inferior time frames to fine tune entries and exits.
I use superior time frames to spot setups and get an idea about targets.

How a trade must be archived into the database:

I have a large archive of trades but from now on they'll be archived in a much more precise manner:
1) setup
2) entry chosen tactic
3) entry execution pattern, number of shares, price, time, "intraday play" / "open play"
4) technical zone to execute the initial stop loss (initial = period of time in which the trade doesn't gain or in case things go crap immediately)
5) target (if any)
6) exit tactic
7) exit execution pattern, number of shares, price, time
8) type of trade: intraday (few minutes to few hours); swing trade (few hours to few days), core trade (few days to few weeks)

How every day should be organized:
1) 9:30 - 10:00 - check out chosen setups + scan 2 min volume gap up + 15 minutes high volume starts
2) 10:30 - 12:15 - scan strong declines that print an abnormal day range in a short period of time + check out Day trade up list for first pullbacks 10:30 time zone
3) 11:15 - 13:00 - scan for OV setups + check out DAY TRADE UP list for middle day pullbacks
4) 15:00 - 15:30 - scan for OV setups and final push down plays
5) 15:30 - 16:00 - scan for high volume up days. They're going into high volume lists to check in the next day up to 2 months.